Generallly, this kind of fishing reel has a drive mechanism and a transmission mechanism which transmits a driving force from the drive mechanism to the spool shaft. The drive mechanism rotates the spool shaft and spool (to be hereinafter merely called the spool) to wind up a fishing line thereon. A clutch in the drive mechanism disengages to make the spool freely rotatable allowing the line to be drawn out of the spool for casting.
In such reel, when a fishing rig at an end of the line is cast, a drawing speed of the line from the spool becomes smaller than a rotational speed of the spool which leads to the occurrence of backlash, thus creating a problem in that the line gets loose and twisted, or enters into the body frame.
Conventionally, in order to solve the above problem, a centrifugal brake or a drag mechanism is used to give a rotational resistance to the spool shaft, which merely exerts braking action on the spool shaft, but cannot basically prevent backlash. Also, such braking device, even when no backlash occurs, is apt to act on the spool and affects a casting distance.
An angler may press his thumb onto the outer periphery of the spool to apply thereto a braking effect to prevent backlash, but this requires much technique and is not performable by those unfamiliar with the use of such a conventional reel.